The Great Courses

“Before longform podcasts, or open platform online learning, or even CDs, there was The Great Courses. The principle was the same: a best-in-their-field expert/professor/expert-professor/professor-expert records a lecture series on a topic they are passionate and knowledgeable about. You would select what you wanted to learn about from their catalog, write away to the company, and sometime later a very heavy and very expensive box of cassette tapes would arrive. While the delivery mechanism wasn't great, the content was. The company is still around, and have a robust website and a decent YouTube channel. The kicker, however: all of the courses are on Libby! The back catalog of available courses is as massive as it is diverse. The company has done a good job digitizing everything, and the course material has held up really well. The usual length is 12-20 hours, and it's a wonderful way to deep dive into any topic under the sun. I'd fool around on the website linked below to see what they have, then check it out on Libby. Somewhere in my parents' house there is an entire room dedicated to Great Courses cassette tapes. We used to get these as birthday presents which says a lot about my upbringing. The Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 snippet that played at the beginning of each episode lives rent free in my head to this day. Go ahead and make all the Dads, and/or dad-book people in your life proud.”

“My 79-year old dad listens to these constantly. From the ancient history of Afghanistan to the gut micro biome he’s into it all.”

“My husband and I had a Great Courses membership during the pandemic and worked our way through several courses. There are a multitude of courses to work through, with wonderful instructors. Some of the episodes are a little dated, but we enjoy watching! You can watch two courses for free every month on Amazon prime.”